One man died this afternoon off Pedra da Agulha beach, near Praia da Arrifana in Aljezur, after falling into the sea as he fished from a rock with two other people.
His companions threw themselves into the sea to try to rescue him, but they ended up having to fight for their lives and later were rescued from the rocks by an Air Force helicopter.
A spokesman for the National Maritime Authority, Pedro Coelho Dias, said the three fishermen were on a rock when one of them fell into the sea. "It will have been accidental, but we still do not know how and why he fell," he said.
The two men who were with him "dived in after him, but were dragged away and ended up stranded on a rock."
A fourth man, who witnessed the accident, was able to remove the first fisherman from the water with the help of a rope, but he was no longer alive.
"The other two fishermen are safe. They were rescued by an Air Force helicopter and were taken to Faro hospital," added Dias.
Emergency ambulance teams from INEM, the Aljezur Bombeiros, the Maritime Police and an Air Force helicopter combined in the operation to rescue the victims and search for the missing person.
The beach of Pedra da Agulha is next to Arrifana beach, is used by fishermen but is notoriously tricky to get to.
